Seven days in Sunny June
by RoziCanuti
Summary: Katniss went to relax and clear her head at the beach with her friends, meeting Peeta wasn't part of her plan. Having feelings for him wasn't either.
1. Chapter 1 - Prologue

**Prologue**

Katniss was sitting down on a blanket facing the ocean, a pen in one hand and a crossword puzzle in the other, the sound of the rhythmic waves of the ocean splashing the shore helped her sun was beginning to set, turning the sky into a mixture of blue, yellow, pink and orange. A slight breeze touched her face gently, making her close her eyes briefly to enjoy the feeling. _Ha!_ _Esophagus,_ she wrote. She was so into the puzzle, that she didn't even notice Peeta sitting next to her.

"Need any help?" - he said smiling broadly. _God, he is beautiful -_ she thought.

"Sure," she shyly said.

That was it, all the concentration she had earlier was gone immediately, the only thing she could focus on was him. He was practically attached to her hip, leaving no personal space between them whatsoever. She could feel him breathing evenly and calmly, she could see his brows frowning in concentration, his teeth biting his lower lip, his tongue darting out licking his upper lip absent mindlessly. It was cute. She was going to hell, she knew it because the only thing she could pay attention to was that tongue, that beautiful tongue that came out teasingly every now and again. She was hypnotized by it, by the thoughts that invaded her every time it came out. She sighed thinking about what that tongue could do to her, to her mouth, neck, stomach, thighs and…

"Clitoris!" Peeta shouted enthusiastically.

 _What? Oh God had she been talking out loud?!, oh God kill her, kill her now_. Her eyes opened wide and she could barely breathe, Peeta looked at her smirking as if he could read her mind.

"9 down: Clitoris," he pointed slowly with his finger.

"Oh," she said and wrote quickly, not daring to look up, a flush creeping up her neck and face. He moved an inch closer to her, if that was even possible, leaning in so he could see the puzzle better. She could breathe in his smell, it was intoxicating - a mixture of sand, sunblock, sea salt and… cinnamon? _Huh_ _That's weird_. She was staring at him, she knew that, but the way the sun touched his golden skin making him shine like a Greek God was making it impossible for her not to. His eyelashes were the longest she had ever seen, they were so close to each other that if she wanted she could touch them with her nose. Suddenly he turned his face towards her, licking his lips he looked briefly at her mouth and then he locked his big blue eyes on her grey ones. She couldn't stare away. She was under his spell and she didn't want to break it. He touched her cheek gently with his thumb, removing a rebel eyelash that had been resting there for God knows how long.

"Make a wish" - he whispered staring at her, deep inside her soul and heart. She closed her eyes tightly, wishing with all her strength that she wasn't engaged, that she could be his and his alone. She blew his thumb slowly, the eyelash that was attached to it flying to wherever it belongs. She felt him shivering next to her. When she opened her eyes, she could see how his eyes had darkened.

"What did you wish for?" he breathed out.

"If I tell you it won't come true," she coyly said. She realized in that moment that she wanted nothing more.


	2. Chapter 2 - Twirl

_A year later I update this, I suck. In my defense last year was hell, my dad had heart surgery so my whole attention was there. Thankfully, everything is ok so I can focus on this again. Hope someone is still interested in this._

 _This chapter is short but I wanted to post something even if it's short. Next chapter is being written at the moment, so in a few days I'll upload that too._

 _Thank you so much to the follows, favorites and reviews! 3_

 _PS: Peeta will appear next chapter!_

Chapter Text

 _3 weeks earlier…_

 _Twirl, twirl, twirl_

She was playing a tedious game with her engagement ring, twirling it around her finger, making her squint every time the sun caught the diamond in it dazzling her.

As she stood in front of the window, staring numbingly outside, she felt hollow. The ring around her finger should be making her feel amazing, happy, joyful even but it didn't. It weighed like a thousand bricks there. She couldn't have said no, could she? They were meant for each other, every one said so. Then, why was she feeling this way? Was this normal? Is this the way every bride felt? Were the movies lying to us, making us believe that when you get engaged your whole world should be and feel bloody perfect?

Closing her eyes tightly, she wished her sister was there. She would have laughed at her insecurities and made her feel better. But she wasn't…

"Catnip, are you alright?" Gale said leaning on the door of their room. Taking a deep breath, she turned around and briefly smiled trying not to show what was inside her mind.

"Yeah" she lied. "Are you sure you don't want to come with us? It's gonna be fun"

Sighing and walking into the room, he said: "We've talked about this already. You know I can't. The case…"

"Yeah, yeah I know" she said putting up her hand not wanting to have this conversation again. Her phone buzzed, a text message from Annie.

 _Honey we're one block away, Finnick says: beaaach babyyyy wooohooo_. Katniss faintly smiled.

"I should go, I'll let you know when we get there" she whispered grabbing her bag, not meeting his eyes. Gale walked close to her and kissed her cheek.

She walked out of her apartment feeling more hollow than ever before and Gale a thousand miles away even though he was just a few feet from her.


	3. Chapter 3 - I don t want your help

"You ok doll?" Finnick asked frowning and searching my eyes. Damn him, he knew her too well.

"I'm ok. Let's go already!" she scowled pulling him to the car where Annie was waiting for them.

Katniss only wanted to leave, to feel the cool breeze already on her face and to relax. The last couple of months had been incredible intense and exhausting. She had been working on a case against Snow Corp, a difficult one that was because of Snow's connections and power. She thought of the case as a personal vendetta as it was Snow's son, Seneca, the asshole who had hit, run and killed Prim. Of course he had been in jail only one night and continued to live his life as if nothing had happened. So when Plutarch, her boss, had told her about the case against the company, she took it without hesitation. Thank God Haymitch and Johanna were there to help her through it, she couldn't ask for a better team. After a lot of sleepless nights and a zillion of dead ends, they had won the case. Plutarch had told her to take a month off as she hadn't really stopped working after her sister's death, she had earned it. At first she wasn't going to take it, but when Finnick told her that she could stay in his family's beach house she gave it a second thought. And now here she was, sitting in a car with her friends, listening to 80s classics and leaving it all behind.

"Welcome to casa Odair, my ladies", Finnick said smugly as they got out of the car.

Katniss opened her bedroom windows and breathed in, this was just what she needed. Her bedroom was on the second floor of the beautiful house; one of windows faced the ocean, which was the house's backyard, and the other faced the neighbor's window. She could see from there inside that house, it looked like an art studio. There were canvases and paint cans all over the next door's room, maybe the person who lived there was an artist.

"Yo Kitty Kat! Hurry up! My perfect skin needs water and sun. Try not ogling at me so much out there," Finnick shouted. "Ouch Annie, that hurt!"

"It's ok Kat, take your time. We'll see you at the beach!" Annie said calmly.

Shaking her head and chuckling a little, Katniss finished unpacking and went downstairs. The house had a deck at the back from which you could just go to the beach. It was a beautiful summer day, the sun was beaming high in the sky and the water looked inviting.

"There she is!" Finnick said waving from where they were sitting at the beach.

She settled down next to her friends and sighed. Yeap this was just what she needed.

She was hot. Sweat was trickling down her neck and chest. She should go to the ocean, she really should. But she couldn't move, the moment she lay down she felt her whole body relaxing. She could faintly hear Finnick and Annie talking on the background. She grunted in response when they directed their attention to her, she didn't have the strength to make speech come out of her mouth.

Suddenly she felt cold, something or someone was blocking the sun from her. Finnick was dead. Lazily she opened one eye and was struck by the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen in her life, that was not Finnick she thought. She sat up abruptly and got dizzy, grabbing her head she wobbled a little.

"Woah you ok?" she heard in the distance and she felt a cold hand on her forehead.

"Yeah I'm ok" she breathlessly said. He was watching her with such intensity that she thought she would faint right there. He swallowed and gently rubbed his hand over her forehead.

"Oh good! You've met" Finnick's voice broke the trance in which both of them were. Blue eyes took out his hand from her face and straightened and a blushing Katniss hastily stood up.

"Peeta!" "Finnick!" The two men embraced in a tight hug. That was when Katniss fully noticed the man next to her. He was clad in tight black speedos, leaving very little to the imagination, his perfect bare chest glistening with sweat. He looked photoshopped, people like him didn't exist in real life. Was she ogling at him? Was her mouth open? Was her brain ever going to work again?

"So I see you've met Katniss already" Finnick said while giving her a knowing look and putting an arm around Annie who was looking at this exchange rather amused. Damn him for knowing her so well and damn her for being amused.

Clearing her mind, shaking her head a little, she scowled narrowing her eyes to Peeta's perfect ones and said : "Well, not formally. He blocked the sun from me"

Laughing a little at her attitude, he said while holding his hands up: "I was just doing my job, you see I'm the lifeguard here and I thought you had fainted because you barely moved."

Crossing her hands over her chest, she puffed indignantly. "Well clearly I had not!" she barked.

Finnick snorted and if looks could kill, he would be a dead man now. Peeta was smirking, the nerve of this guy she thought. She didn't need help thank you very much, and she definitely didn't want his help or his hands on her.

Annie quickly said to change the subject, bless her Katniss thought: "So Peeta will you be joining us for dinner?"

Katniss jerked her head so fast that she almost lost her balance again, almost. Peeta stretched his hands out to help her steady again, but she jumped back and scowled at him.

"Sure" Peeta mumbled, not taking her eyes from her.

"Oh this should be fun!" Finnick said, eyes mischievously shining.


	4. Chapter 4 - Shivers

**Chapter 3 - Shivers**

She stared at the ring in the jewelry box and then at her outstretched finger, the bastard was mocking her there naked. You see, when she got to the beach house she took it out and put it in there, she thought that she could easily lose her belongings in the sand. That had been logical, it had even felt logical,but now there she was inside the house, getting ready for dinner, there was no logical reason for her not to put that ring back on.

Laughter coming from downstairs made her look away from that stupid ring and her stupid finger. Her heart was racing, this was silly she thought as she smoothed down her sundress and swallowed shakingly. _Get it together Everdeen it's not like you're going on a double date with him and Finnick and Annie. It's just dinner._

She nervously went downstairs, one small step at a time. Her heart was about to leave her ribcage, the bastard. "There you are Kitty Kat," Finnick said while beaming his biggest smile. "Call me that again and the glue incident will happen again" she simply stated, eyes gleaming with mirth. Finnick's eyes went wide and his hands went directly to his groin. "Don't you dare hurt my babies! Don't take Annie's toys away from her." A shout from the kitchen interrupted them "I will gladly give you the glue Kat!"

The most precious sound came from next to her, a deep laughter that made her shiver all over. "If you need me, I can tackle him for you," he winked at her. The faintest smile appeared on her face.

"Ugh even my best friend is against me!" Finnick clenched his heart in fake outrage. "Come on, let's eat and drink my friends!" Finnick said clasping both his friends on the back and directing them to the kitchen. Peeta staring at her all the way there, her body reacting in ways that it shouldn't.

"So how long have you known Finnick?" a voice came from next to her. When exactly did he sat there on the porch looking at the ocean with her was a complete mystery. She looked at him and at that moment she was speechless, not that she ever spoke a lot. Damn those blue eyes that were piercing through her.

 _Say something, anything._ 'Mmmm,' _oh that's great you'll get the Nobel prize for that speech alone, say something already._ After what felt like ages, her mouth caught up with her brain. 'Since college. We met at a frat party my friend Johanna dragged me into, he tried hitting on me and made a complete fool of himself and I was charmed (that's what he says anyway)." Peeta chuckled at that, God she wanted to make him laugh every day. _Ok that was wrong, wrong, wrong._ "The reality was that I couldn't shake him off me, he was everywhere and I kinda got used to him being there. Also he's one of the only people who puts up with me, so…" At that she blushed, now she was talking too much. Great. "What about you?" _Good one._

He sipped his beer and half smiled as if he was remembering something. She couldn't stop staring at his neck for some reason, it looked lickable. _I'm going to hell._ At that thought she sipped her beer and looked ahead, the sound of the ocean engulfing both of them. Her mouth on the bottle was good she thought, it was a good distraction so that she didn't do something stupid like lick his neck all of the sudden.

"We've been friends forever. My family owns the house next door, so we practically grew up together," he said as he pointed to his house.

"Are you an artist?" the question came out of her mouth before she could think what she was saying. He gave her a questioning look, as if saying how do you know this crazy person. "Ehm, my window is just across from yours and it looks like an art studio so…" she said way too fast avoiding his gaze.

"Oh! I…"

"Look Annie! They grow up so fast!" Peeta shook his head at his friend as he chuckled, Katniss just scowled. Both Annie and Finnick came out to the porch and sat down. Annie stifling a chuckle and Finnick feeling rather proud of himself.

Finnick put an arm around Katniss' shoulders and said: "Take care of her Peeta while we are gone would ya?" At that she stood up abruptly and almost shouted: "I can take care on my own!" She sprinted out of the porch into the house and went straight to her room without looking back, even though she felt a pair of blue eyes following her every move.

She lay on her bed, windows open, listening to soft music and reading a book. Well, trying to read a book. She had read the same line 4 times already. Huffing, she stood up and noticed that the light on Peeta's art studio was on. She glanced that way and spotted his blond curls in front of a canvas. He was deep in concentration, his teeth biting his lower lip, he looked cute and hot at the same time. _Damn._ She approached the window sill and softly said: "Sorry about earlier" She didn't know why she was apologizing, she didn't do anything wrong but apparently she didn't want him to think that she was a psycho for some reason. At hearing her voice, he startled. He half smiled and said: "It's ok. Finnick can get everyone on their nerves." She snorted in response. _Classy_. "But seriously if you need anything don't hesitate to ask," he added quickly piercing her with his blue eyes again, making her shiver all over. _Wrong, wrong, wrong._ "Ok, I'll allow it," she faintly smiled and went back to bed.

She was lying in bed thinking all the things those hands of him could help her with when her phone pinged. A text message from Gale. She growled into the pillow and faced her phone down on the bed side table, not wanting to deal with her feelings or him yet.


End file.
